


May you forever be of one mind

by Anbessette



Category: Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Arranged Marriage, Bisexual Jedao, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lesbian Cheris, Platonic Life Partners, mentioned pregnancy/childbirth, wlw mlm solidarity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2019-10-16 03:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17541917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anbessette/pseuds/Anbessette
Summary: “All right,” sighed Shous Jedao. “What’s wrong?”“Sir?” whispered his wife.“You look like someone walking to her own execution. It’s a familiar attitude; I’ve seen a great many executions.”Historical AU where Jedao is the emperor's greatest and most infamous general, and a marriage is arranged between him and Cheris. It turns out better than either of them were expecting (no hetero)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The title is in reference to a traditional Chinese saying used to wish someone well upon their marriage.

“All right,” sighed Shous Jedao. “What’s wrong?”

“Sir?” whispered his wife. It was the first word he had heard the young woman speak; she had neither looked at him nor made a sound during the wedding ceremony. This was, in theory, proper behaviour for a bride, and though tradition held that it would have been luckier had she wept, Jedao had been glad to be spared such dramatics. When they had entered the bridal chamber, she had stripped out of her gown with a promptness that another man may have interpreted as brazen before laying on the bed. Jedao, however, was a warrior and a general who had risen to prominence based not only on his combat prowess but also his keen mind and instinct for people. He could not help but see the tension in her body, the tight muscles that longed to fight or flee and only held back from trembling by sheer force of will. She was terrified.

“You look like someone walking to her own execution. It’s a familiar attitude; I’ve seen a great many executions.” He realised as he said it that this was not the most reassuring way to begin this conversation. Though it had hardly seemed possible, she tensed even further. “That was meant as a joke, of sorts.”

“You are _not funny!_ ” she hissed vehemently, and he clearly saw her regret the words as soon as they flew out of her mouth. Something they had in common, then, a talent for saying the wrong thing. This marriage was off to a splendid start.

“I’m told that a certain amount of nervousness is to be expected on a wedding night. This, however, is something quite beyond that. So I’m asking you what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong, sir. I am prepared to do my duty.”

“Yes, prepared to clench your fists in the sheets and bite your tongue so as not to scream, I can see that. That’s not what I’m asking of you.”

She remained silent.

“Is it not a wife’s first duty to be obedient?” Jedao asked. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that as she prepared you for marriage your mother instructed you not to defy your husband.”

She nodded minutely.

“As of this afternoon, you are my wife, Ajewen Cheris. And as your husband I am commanding you to _explain yourself_.”

He spoke with the full weight of authority he had perfected in the field, using the cold, dangerous tone that had been known to make green recruits piss themselves. Jedao felt guilty in a distant sort of way for leaning so hard on her when she had done nothing wrong, but he saw no other way to drag answers out of the stubborn young woman, and he needed those answers in order to proceed.

And anyway, it seemed Cheris was made of sterner stuff than many of the young soldiers he had trained. She met his eyes and only stammered a little as she choked out her answer. If she had been a recruit, he would have singled her out for likely promotion.

“I – I have had a lover before, sir.”

“Ah.” Jedao relaxed and sat down on the bed beside her, pulling a knife out of his sash. Cheris’ pulse visibly leapt at her throat as her eyes focused on the blade, pupils like pinpricks, but her expression changed to one of confusion as Jedao jabbed the point into the pad of his thumb.

“I’m aware that expectations are different for men and women, but I’m not inclined to condemn you for something I’ve done myself,” Jedao explained as he squeezed the thumb, causing the drop of blood to swell. When he had a decent collection he pressed down onto the sheet and smeared a small, messy stain. “You needn’t fear disgrace.”

“Thank you,” said Cheris quietly. She gazed down at the bloodstained sheet, and a little of the tension left her. “But my concern was not about bleeding. It’s … my lover was female. She is gone from my life now, but I … with a man, I don’t want ...”

“I see. Well. At the risk of repeating myself, I’m not inclined to condemn you for a trait I share.”

“What?”

“I’ve lain with men. Women too, though not so often. But some of my male lovers couldn’t stomach the thought of bedding a woman.” Jedao leaned back against the headboard. “All right. Put some clothes back on – probably not all of them, that dress looks like a nightmare – and turn up the lamps.”

“Sir?”

“I’m not leaving yet, I can’t have my colleagues thinking my stamina is that poor. But we might as well be comfortable while we wait. Do you play xiangqi? I could teach you if not.”

“ _Why?_ ”

Jedao rubbed wearily at his eyes. “I may be the empire’s greatest monster, but I draw the line at rape.”

Cheris scoffed slightly at that, though she was already slipping into the plain white underdress she had worn beneath the elaborate wedding gown. “Your soldiers don’t.”

“Really?” Jedao looked up, suddenly alert again. “You wouldn’t happen to have any specifics, would you? Names, for instance?”

“Of course I don’t know their names,” Cheris said as if she were speaking to a halfwit. Which, upon reflection, was fair.

“Pity. I don’t tolerate that from my troops. It would be useful if I could make an example of a few. But yes, you wouldn’t know details.”

“I don’t know soldiers’ names,” Cheris said, settling back down on the bed. “I could name some of the girls it happened to. But then, they wouldn’t be eager to discuss it with the empire’s greatest monster.”

Jedao considered making a comment about the respectful way to speak to one’s husband but dismissed the idea. She might take him seriously.

“Well, if you manage to collect any details from visits with other ladies or talking to servants or such things, do pass them on. Ranks, divisions, distinguishing features … I might be able to piece enough together for a public and creative punishment.”

“I will.” Cheris actually smiled at that.

Jedao set up the xiangqi board and they began a gaming lesson. Cheris hadn’t played before, but she was a quick study and despite her inexperience showed impressive potential. She had a fondness for mathematics, it transpired, that seemed to aid her here.

“Wonderful, you’ll be able to help me with my accounts. I have clerks, of course, but I have to keep an eye on their work and the numbers make my head spin. Finances are the worst part of command.”

“Is this really your plan?” demanded Cheris. “We’ll play board games and talk about your work and just … not lie together? Ever?”

“We only met a few hours ago. I haven’t had a lot of time to plan. But yes, that’s roughly the shape of it so far.”

“That’s not how marriage _works_.”

“Not in general, but I don’t see why the two of us couldn’t do it behind closed doors. Look, this wedding wasn’t my idea either. I didn’t particularly want a wife, but my superiors were insistent and when the imperial family wants to reward you for your service it’s not politic to refuse. Especially when the reward offered is a young woman and there are already enough whispers about your tastes in bed. I’m not nobility, I’m a soldier who was born on a farm. My parents are healthy and I have brothers. Getting an heir isn’t a matter of urgency for me.”

“Not urgent, but eventually it will be noticed that I never fall pregnant.”

“People will assume you’re barren.”

“And that will be a problem. If I was meant as a reward, I could be considered a defective one if I fail to provide you with a son. You’ll be pressured to put me aside.”

“Which isn’t such a terrible fate for a woman who never wanted to marry in the first place.”

“I didn’t want it at first, no,” said Cheris. “But now … I’ve just met you and I can already tell you’re as crazy as they say, but not in the way I feared. I would rather stay married to you than spend the rest of my life as a cast-off woman in my father’s house bringing shame to my family.”

“That would be my preferred alternative too. As I said, I never particularly wanted a wife. A friend and companion with a good head for strategy and no incentive to betray my interests is actually considerably more valuable to me than a bedmate and broodmare, but that only works if I don’t give you such an incentive. If I force you into anything you don’t want to do, you could ruin my life or kill me in my sleep.”

“I doubt you’re an easy man to kill.”

“I’m an extremely difficult man to kill, but I believe you’re one of the few who could manage it. You held yourself like a soldier earlier, like someone captured by the enemy and sentenced to die. As I said, I’ve seen a lot of executions. Most of them go without a struggle, holding onto some notion of dignity. But a few turn on their executioners and fight like demons because they know they have nothing left to lose. It’s what I’d do. And it’s what you’d do. Maybe not this first night, when you were so determined to do your wifely duty, but eventually pain would turn to hate. And you’d be beside me as I slept and cooking my meals.”

“You’re the Immolation Fox,” said Cheris after a long silence. “You’re the only general in the Emperor’s army who has never been defeated. I don’t believe for a second that the only outcomes from here are either you put me aside or you rape me and I kill you.”

“Oh, of course not,” said Jedao, waving a hand dismissively. “I can think of half a dozen options off the top of my head, and we’d have at least two years of time to devise even more before anyone started entertaining serious doubts about your fertility.”

Cheris’ hand clenched into a fist around the xiangqi tile she was holding. “You fucking prick,” she snapped. “What was the point of all that if you had other ideas the entire time?”

Jedao shrugged. “You might have happily accepted the offer of a divorce. Just four hours ago you were afraid to even look at me, after all. I take it you want to hear my ideas, then?”

Cheris threw the tile at his face; Jedao caught it with a grin. “I _want_ to shove you in a duck pond. But since we’re lacking one of those at the moment, by all means, go on.”

“The simplest option is we conceive a child the old-fashioned way. We could talk to some midwives and lie together once a month at the most auspicious time. If you can bear it, of course. I won’t be offended if you can’t.”

“I’ll think about it,” Cheris said. “It might be bearable if it was just for that reason, and not too often, after I’d had time to get used to you. What else?”

“I could bring myself off in my hand and you could plant the seed inside you with your fingers. It seems as if it would work in theory, though a lot of strategies that should work in theory fail the moment you reach the field.”

“That sounds a little disgusting. But then, so is childbirth. Go on.”

“The next two ideas are very similar, and both spare you from the pain of childbirth and the horror of touching my manly seed. We put it about that you’ve had several early miscarriages, so your condition is delicate and you must be kept in rest and seclusion until the child is born. Nine months later, we produce someone else’s infant and pass it off as our own. A bastard orphan we found, perhaps, they’re hardly in short supply, or the child of a discreet woman we paid for the service.”

“My mother would be beside herself with worry and beat down our door.”

“Hard for her to do that if we’re on the other side of the empire. I have friends in high places who’d do me a favour if I requested a far-off posting to escape my mother-in-law, and enemies who’d love to see me sent to the ass-end of nowhere where I can’t bother them.”

“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

“It’s why I’m undefeated.”

“You said half a dozen. That was four. Keep going.”

“We leave it until my patrons grow concerned and suggest I put you aside. I throw a fit, declare my devoted, all-consuming love for you and shout down their insulting suggestions until eventually I let myself be persuaded to take a concubine, keeping you as my First Wife. Of course, then we’d have to live with another woman. It would be nice if we could find a woman like me -”

“There is no-one in the world like you.”

“Like me in that she lies with both men and women, if you would let me finish. Though finding such a woman, let alone one we both like, seems almost too unlikely to be worth considering.”

“Indeed. And the sixth option?”

“When my patrons suggest I put you aside I demand a private audience with the most powerful or most insistent and, deeply shamefaced, confess that you haven’t conceived because I’m impotent. Perhaps I stage an injury in battle to place the blame on. I pretend to take whatever medicines the physicians recommend, sadly to no effect, and my patron pities my humiliating affliction and forces everyone else to leave us alone. This is not my favourite plan, naturally, but as long as I keep smashing enemy armies on the battlefield my reputation can’t suffer too badly. And it leaves us without a child, if we decide we don’t want one.”

Cheris shook her head in bemusement and began to laugh, only to cut herself off with a yawn.

“It is getting late,” said Jedao. “I think enough time has passed for a perfectly respectable wedding night. I’ll head back to my room, and we can talk more tomorrow. Good night, Cheris.”

“Good night, Jedao.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Jedao fixed the clasp in her hair, leaning in close as he did so to whisper in her ear. As their audience doubtless imagined sweet nothings, he murmured “I’d be obliged if you present yourself tonight as a jealous harridan. There’s a man here whom I told that you would rip my dick off if you suspected me of infidelity.”_

Cheris was walking with a small group of military wives toward the brightly lit gates when she heard a familiar voice call out “My dear Cheris!”

“Husband,” she answered, turning to greet Jedao with a smile and a courteous dip of the head. This party was the first they had seen of each other for some weeks, as he had only today returned from some command business in another province. To her companions, she said “You can carry on without me; I’m sure we’ll find each other again once inside.”

The ladies, naturally, did nothing of the sort. They drew away just enough to grant the tenuous illusion of privacy while continuing to discreetly goggle at them.

“I’m glad I caught you in time,” said Jedao, and produced a small package of softly crinkling paper. “I have a gift for you, and it would give me great pleasure to see you wear it tonight.”

“You are too generous,” Cheris said, doing her best at an appreciative coo. She unwrapped it to find a hair clasp decorated with a small jewelled bird.

“May I?” Jedao fixed the clasp in her hair, leaning in close as he did so to whisper in her ear. As their audience doubtless imagined sweet nothings, he murmured “I’d be obliged if you present yourself tonight as a jealous harridan. There’s a man here whom I told that you would rip my dick off if you suspected me of infidelity.” Straightening up, he declared “Beautiful.”

Cheris gave a coy smile, flicked open her fan and held it up to conceal the lower half of her face. “What the hell for?” she asked in an undertone.

“I don’t want him for a bedmate.”

Cheris did not say _So_ _don’t_ _go to bed with_ _him._ If it were that simple, he wouldn’t need to ask for her help. “Shall I follow you around like a shadow?” she offered.

“No, I know you have mingling to do. Just, if you see a handsome older gentleman standing particularly close to me, glare at us as if I insulted that disgusting pickled cabbage you’re so fond of.”

“That is a beloved traditional dish among my -”

“Yes, perfect, that’s the look.” He took her arm and steered her back to her companions, where he bowed and made some charming remarks before heading off the speak to some acquaintance.

“Such a lovely man. Ah! If only _my_ husband would surprise me with gifts like that!”

“I’m very lucky to have him,” Cheris agreed. The sentiment was sincere, though her simpering tone was far from it. They were developing a reputation as a sickeningly devoted couple thanks to stunts like this. It could be quite amusing at times, even if only the two of them recognised the joke, but she wasn’t enjoying the game at the moment.

Jedao never asked her for help like this. Well, no, that wasn’t really true. He asked things of her, from checking figures to finding things out to, yes, acting a particular role in public like this. But until now, these requests had always been in service of some larger goal, not simply because he wanted something. Wanted to avoid something.

She spent the evening circulating, talking and listening to people she didn’t often see except at events like this. At one point she met an attractive young lady who hinted an interest at deepening their acquaintance, but while under other circumstances she would have been happy to do so, tonight she politely ignored the advance. She found herself reluctant to let Jedao out of her sight for fear of missing her cue.

She did, eventually, see what Jedao had warned her about. She shot death glares at the back of her husband’s head until the man talking to him smirked across the room at her. The crowd shifted, and when her line of sight was clear again, they were gone.

It was a tricky thing to make her way quickly across a crowded party without appearing to hurry and then, when she reached the spot where she had last seen them, to guess where they had gone. But she did find them eventually, hidden away in a shadowed alcove. They were not doing anything, yet. Only talking. While standing _very_ close to each other.

Cheris breathed deep, and banished relief and fear from her face, leaving only anger to show.

“Jedao!” she snapped, striding toward them. “I want to go home.”

“Oh – Cheris. All right. I’ll see you there.”

“No, husband. I want _you_ to take me home. Now, please.”

“I’m talking to –”

“Husband.” She took his arm, nails digging in as she gripped tight. “You have been in the company of your colleagues for weeks, leaving me waiting here alone. We are going home now.” She flashed an obviously false smile at his companion as she pulled Jedao’s arm closer against her side. “So sorry, sir! I’ve missed him. You understand.”

And then, without leaving time for a reply, she was dragging him toward the exit.

They walked in silence, except for the farewells spoken to the friends they passed, until they were safely ensconced in a carriage.

“You should not have done that,” said Jedao.

“You asked me to.”

“I asked you to glare, not to physically intervene. Don’t you know who that was? Lord Kujen is the most dangerous man you have ever met, and considering whom you’re married to, that’s saying a lot.”

“That sounds like all the more reason why I needed to do it.”

“It’s not safe for you to draw his attention like that.”

“He took you aside because he noticed me glaring at the two of you. I had already drawn his attention.”

Jedao sighed. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have asked it of you at all.”

“No, you should have!” Cheris contradicted, more loudly than she had meant to. “You’ve always protected me. Now it’s my turn to protect you.”

Jedao looked archly at her. “You realise that I am the general who conquered your homeland in the name of the empire.”

“Yes, I was there when your army marched through the city.”

“And _you_ are going to protect _me_.”

“ _Yes._ ”

They scowled silently at one another for a few moments. Jedao was the first to look away.

“I know how it is,” said Cheris more softly “to want to say no, and not dare to, for fear that you’ll discover it doesn’t matter. All women know this, I think, except perhaps empresses. Most men don’t, except those who leverage it on purpose. You have … unusual views on such things. There aren’t many who would even consider that anything a man does with his own wife could be rape. I am very glad that you think the way you do. But I sometimes wonder how you learned to.”

“And you thought your wonderings had been answered tonight? No, Cheris. I learned that before I ever laid eyes on Kujen.”

 _He wasn’t the one who raped me_ , Cheris translated mentally. Then, with a pang, went back and edited the word ‘first’ into that sentence.

“He and I were lovers, on and off, for a long time. He assumed we still would be. That’s all.”

_I don’t want him for a bedmate._

“Did you want to be his lover?”

“I never trusted him, but that isn’t a requirement. Our goals aligned for a time, and his influence helped me a great deal. He is a very attractive man. Powerful. Intelligent. Good in bed.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

She thought, at first, that he wasn’t going to respond. Finally, he said “Sometimes. In a way. It was complicated.”

Cheris inched closer on the bench, so that her shoulder pressed against his. “Well. I’ll stand between you any time you need me to.”

Jedao pressed back, and leaned some of his weight into her. They sat like that for a while until Jedao straightened up and pulled out a knife. Cheris, who by now was no longer surprised by this sort of thing, simply waited.

“A gift. It would give me great pleasure to see you wear it.” He cracked a small smile as he laid the hilt in her palm. “But really. Carry it with you. I’ll teach you to use it.”

Cheris swallowed her instinctive protest that surely this was unnecessary. Jedao was in a better position than she to judge that for the time being.

“I don’t think Kujen is likely to try to have you killed. I wish I could say I didn’t think it a _possibility_ , but here we are. In any case, if you’re going to make a habit of protecting me like this I’ll feel better knowing you’re capable of physically defending yourself.”

“All right,” Cheris agreed readily. There had been no sarcastic twang to Jedao’s voice as he said ‘protecting me’, after all, so it seemed only fair to be cooperative in return. “I’d like that. You can show me the basics, if there are any beyond which end to point at the enemy, when we get home. Real lessons can wait until after I’ve slept.”

“I’ll show you the right way to hold it then let you rest. Though I don’t see how you can be tired yet after leaving the party so early. I am sorry about that, by the way.”

“It’s not important.”

“Wasn’t that woman in the blue dress flirting with you?”

“I’ve rather lost interest in trysts at parties,” Cheris said. It was partially true, and though she would have still been willing to give it a try, she didn’t want him to think she regretted coming to his rescue. “The last lady I met at a night like this was so excited by what a scandalous thing we were sneaking off to do that it was quite distracting. Just when it was getting good she whispered ‘think what your husband would do if he found you like this!’ I almost choked trying not to laugh.”

“I suppose ‘he’d congratulate me’ would rather ruin the moment,” said Jedao, and his smile finally looked genuine.

After a period of silence, Cheris said “When you say Lord Kujen used his influence to help you … Is he one of the patrons you told me about, who decided that we should be married?”

“I believe it was Mikodez and his astrologers who selected you, but yes, Kujen was involved in the decision to get me wed. I’m sure he’s regretting his hand in it now.” Jedao’s eyes gleamed briefly with satisfaction before he turned serious again. “He’s the reason I’ll need to consider feigning an injury if we decide on plan six.”

“You should probably do that soon, if you’re going to,” mused Cheris, turning it over in her mind. “I know we have a few years left to decide what to do, but if we want the option of using that plan, we should lay the groundwork early. It could also help your case for declining his advances. Unless there’s a chance of him sticking his hand between your legs to verify.”

Jedao chuckled. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. His seduction technique tends to be a little more elegant.”

“And will tonight interfere with plan five?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, will he find it hard to believe if you claim to be devotedly in love with the wife who supposedly threatened to rip your dick off?”

“No,” Jedao said with a wry grin. “The reverse, if anything. He knows what I like.”

“Ugh.” Cheris smacked him on the arm.

His response was a breathy sigh. “Yes, darling …”

She hit him again, harder, laughing. “I have a knife, you know!”

“Even better.”

Cheris shrieked and shielded her ears. “I’m not letting you teach me if you say things like that!”

“I yield, I yield.”

“Jedao, I fucking swear -”

“Truce! I meant truce, I’ll stop. Sorry. I’m out of practice at offering surrender.”

“Has anyone told you that most of your apologies just sound like bragging?”

“That kind of fascinating insight is what I have you for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept thinking about this universe and decided I had more ideas. This fic will have three chapters loosely corresponding to the three books in the trilogy (1:They meet and are bound together for life against their will, 2:They're a team now and they've got everyone fooled, 3: You'll see), and there may be some side-stories set in the same universe.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic came to me in a dream. I woke up from a vivid dream where Cheris and Jedao were in an arranged marriage and expecting a child, and at first I was annoyed with my subconscious for even suggesting it. But as I ranted about the concept in my head it turned out I had some pretty solid counterarguments ("how dare you put my queer faves in such a heteronormative situation!" "for one thing, Jedao's bi, and for another thing, has anyone historically cared whether the bride in these situations was actually into it or not? well, Jedao would care to a certain extent but..." "he's an incorporeal ghost anchored to her body!" "but in a mundane au an arranged marriage is a pretty decent analogy for that situation") and I started getting invested in the idea. Then I went to jot down some notes about it and I accidentally a whole fic.


End file.
